The Resident Bitch Prepares for... the Most Recent MoFo Countdown

Ah, that silly Hedwig movie. Ugh.

Fixed that for you.

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Although I am pleasantly surprised with some of the others that might make your ballot

Sing
(Garth Jennings and Christophe Lourdelet, 2016)

Every time I watch this movie, I have fun. This silly little tale of the owner of a dying theater who puts on a singing competition in a last ditch effort to keep from going under and motley bunch of talented hopefuls he attracts is entertaining fluff. It's cute, colorful, and funny enough, but it doesn't strike any big emotional chords and it's not especially memorable. Even so, I enjoy it a lot more than many of the other movies I've watched for this countdown and I think it's got a decent chance of sneaking on to my ballot.

Hair
(Milos Forman, 1979)

I don't have a lot to say about this one. I thought the songs were irritating as hell, the movie was too long, and the characters ranged from bland and forgettable (especially Bukowski) to incredibly obnoxious (with hippie leader Berger being the most annoying of all). I will give the movie some credit for the ending, which might've been a bit of gut punch if I'd actually cared at all about Berger, but I didn't care so it had very little effect on me.

The Commitments
(Alan Parker, 1991)

Another I don't have a lot to say about. The music was fine, but it was all just cover songs and I would've rather just heard the versions I already know than this. The story was fine but a movie about a guy forming a band of working class people isn't exactly groundbreaking. What wasn't fine were the characters. As far as I can tell they're all a bunch of a-holes who spent most of their off-stage time bickering with each other over some stupid bullshit. Making matters worse was that between them yelling over each other, their heavy Irish accents, and the frequent use of slang I'm not familiar with, I often had a lot of difficulty understanding them and because I didn't like a single one of them, I didn't care enough to really try to figure it out.

Off topic a little bit when's the last time you gave a new watch over 4 stars

I'm not sure that I ever have.

Robin Hood
(Wolfgang Reitherman and David Hand, 1973)

I know I saw Disney's Robin Hood a time or two as a kid, but it was never a favorite - so going into it tonight it didn't really have nostalgia on its side. But I enjoyed it just the same. It's more fun than I'd remembered it being and I thought the voice cast did a very good job. As a movie, it's pretty good.

However, as a musical it barely qualifies. There are maybe four scenes where characters sing - and two of those only count if consider the narrator to be a proper "character" and the other two are just the same song being sung twice by different characters in scenes that are very close together. For me, this is not enough to consider giving it a vote so there's no way it makes it onto my ballot.

Horror movies will always hold their place in the hearts of fans, thanks to their unique ability to tap into deep fears and deliver unforgettable experiences.

In the Heights
(Jon M. Chu, 2021)

This was just too much for me. Too much singing. Too much dancing. Too many characters. Too damn long. I hated the songs. I hated the dances. Even with its overlong runtime I never felt like it spent enough time with any of the characters as individuals to make me give a damn and so I just spent the whole movie being both bored and annoyed.

I'll throw a little credit its way because I liked the look of the movie, but that's really the only positive thing I have to say about it.

That Thing You Do!
(Tom Hanks, 1996)

I vaguely remember seeing this movie when it was fairly new and I vaguely remember liking it, but it's not a movie that stuck with me and I never really had any desire to see it again. Having watched it again today, I'm a little torn on how to rate it. On one hand, I think it's a really solid movie. The performances are strong - Tom Everett Scott plays a very believable lovable goofball, Johnathon Schaech is wonderfully hateable as the arrogant jerk frontman, Liv Tyler embodies the supportive but naive girlfriend, and Tom Hanks is good as the guy running the show, both in the story and behind the camera. I also thought the music and costuming suited the era and the tone of the movie very well, and the story was engaging if not particularly original.

And I did mostly enjoy myself, but I also found it just a little bit annoying. That title song, fitting though it may be, is a bit too saccharine for me (and the fact that it gets played over and over again doesn't help matters), main character "Guy" was just a bit too damn goofy and rather frequently crossed the line from lovable to irritating, and Jimmy was maybe just a bit too unlikable. Still, these are relatively minor complaints and this stands a good chance of making it on my ballot.

I decided to sign up for Netflix. I'll probably cancel it before it's time to renew but for now I have access...



Thelma the Unicorn
(Jared Hess and Lynn Wang, 2024)

This was recommended to me a little while back and it looked cute, so I decided to give it a try and... it's fine. The story isn't particularly unique or inspired, but the movie was fun, I really liked the design of Thelma herself (though I wasn't crazy about the designs of some of the other characters), and the music was actually pretty good. I enjoyed a lot things about it, but too many aspects of it were far too silly for me to ever go beyond just kind of liking it overall. I do think the positives outweigh the negatives and I acknowledge that this is intended for people far younger than I am - and who therefore may appreciate the silliness - but I don't think this is a movie I'll ever love and I don't think it'll make my ballot.

Singin' in the Rain
(Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1952)

For my 50th watch for this countdown I decided to step way, way outside of my comfort zone and give this iconic film a try. And... I can understand why people who love classic movies and people who love musicals would love this. The trouble is that I don't love classic movies or musicals. I thought the dancing was good, but I don't enjoy watching dancing. The singing of Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds were good, but I don't like the songs. The performances were solid, but I don't like the characters. I could go on, but to sum it up, I think the movie does well to do what it was trying to do, it's just that what it was trying to do doesn't appeal to me.

Still, I do have to give it credit for the fact that I didn't actually hate it even though I was fully expecting to.

I just rewatched this and I think I love it. This time I wasn't at all bothered by its episodic structure or by the amount of time spent on the credits. It's just delightfully weird and delightfully charming, with equally weird and charming songs. I'm going to upgrade its rating from my initial 3.5 to a 4, but I could see it going even higher if I give it another watch in the future.

Miss Vicky, have you seen Forbidden Zone (1980)? It's a non-traditional, weird musical. It's only 1 hour and 14 minutes and it is fun, if you can vibe with the oddness of it.

Never heard of it. I’ll add it to my watchlist.

Cool. Hope you like it.

The Greatest Showman
(Michael Gracey, 2017)

This movie sure loved to pat itself and P.T. Barnum on the back as a "celebration of humanity" and for "putting people of all shapes, sizes, colours... on stage together and presenting them as equals." If I'd rolled my eyes any harder at this movie, I might've injured myself. Normally I can forgive a lot of historical inaccuracy and creative license, but celebrating a man who abused, exploited (and even enslaved) both people and animals and presenting him as some sort of champion of diversity and inclusion left an extremely bad taste in my mouth. I lost count of the number of times I exclaimed (a more profane version of) "Go screw yourself, movie!" while watching this.

Making matters worse was that I absolutely hated all of the song and the dance numbers, the stupid manufactured interracial romance between Zac Efron and Zendaya's completely fictional characters, and the even more stupid manufactured romantic interest of Jenny Lind towards Barnum. I also thought the CG animals looked about as genuine as Barnums' Fiji Mermaid, but I do appreciate that they went the route of computer images rather than using real elephants and horses. If I can actually praise anything about this movie, it's the sets, costumes, and color palette. It is a very good looking movie.

However, if what you want is an actual good movie about circus freaks that portrays them humanely, go watch Tod Browning's Freaks instead.

Leo
(Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, and David Wachtenheim, 2023)

I had some pretty mixed feelings on this one. I thought the animation was good and I really like the character designs. I also enjoyed the story and its messaging. However, I really, REALLY hated those songs. I didn't care for the lyrics and I really dislike listening to children sing. On top of that, I find Adam Sandler's speaking voice to be incredibly grating so having him voice the main character was kind of painful for me and doubly so when he was singing.

I do think it's a good movie overall, but there's no way it's getting a vote.